


The Nikiforov Incident

by izzyisozaki



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age of Sail, Alternate Universe - Historical, Captivity, Cross-cultural, Developing Relationship, Edo Period, Inspired by Real Events, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Victor Nikiforov, Period Typical Attitudes, Political Expediency, Read on for content warnings:, Reversible Couple, Russian Empire, Russo-Japanese Relations, Samurai, Seafarers, Set in the early 1800s, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, The Golovnin Incident, Tradesmen, Victuri Gift Exchange 2017, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 15:32:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13251204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzyisozaki/pseuds/izzyisozaki
Summary: Due to a terrible misunderstanding, the charismatic captain of the Russian imperial sloopDianais taken prisoner by the Japanese. Will the captain escape, or will his imprisonment spark a war between Russia and Japan? …Whatever happens, he lives to never regret it.Age of Sail AU forLa_Temperanza, my giftee for theVicturi Gift Exchange 2017.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [La_Temperanza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/La_Temperanza/gifts).



> Despite having flirted with the idea of writing a "Nautical AU," I doubt I would have ever found the necessary motivation (due to the research it would have required me, who is a bit of a precision freak) if it had it not been for the Victuri Gift Exchange and the fact I got assigned someone whom I also happened to appreciate for their tutorials on Ao3, La_Temperanza. I do not how long it will take me to write the entire story I have planned, but I hope you can enjoy what I have written so far.
> 
> This story will heavily reference the life V. M. Golovnin and the events that took place in his _Memoirs of a captivity in Japan, during the years 1811, 1812 and 1813 with Observations on the country and the people_. It was easy to base my story on this work due to the author's respect for historical detail and his cultural awareness. Some things might even strike you as familiar in regard to contemporary Japan, especially if you have lived there as a foreigner.

If you are a Russian sailor and have never been on a ship directed to the mysterious islands of Japan, I would tell you well of course not, entry is entirely off-limits to foreigners since 1639, with the exception of the Dutch and the Chinese, to whom docking is permitted in the harbor of Nagasaki. Not to mention the perils of navigation, fogs and violent winds making its northern dominions all the more elusive to those who do not happen to be seafaring Kuriles. Subgroups of this indigenous people inhabit the lands between Russia and Japan, making them the ideal interpreters, if not victims of crossfire between the two nations, who barely know each other.

I had set out to gather all the information I could after I deemed it inconvenient to retrieve the papers the Board of Admiralty forwarded to me, intended to serve as an explanation and a guide in regard to my mission, which was the survey and description of unknown lands in the Northern Pacific. Perusing the accounts of previous navigators of the seas where I was headed and interrogating the Kuriles who had traveled them, I learned why Russians were not the least welcome to Japan or its dominions, and that the weather would be highly unfavorable for exploring. 

Meanwhile the imperial sloop of war under my command, the _Diana_ , was moored in the icy harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul in Kamchatka, a volcanic peninsula of Siberia. In 1807 I had set sail with my crew from Kronstadt, Saint Petersburg's main seaport, and headed in the direction of South America, until a severe storm forced me to set sail for the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa, to restock on supplies. There, after over a year of detainment, we made an audacious escape from the British, whose relations with the Russians had soured while we had been at sea, wholly ignorant of the matter.

Arriving safely to the southeast coast of Kamchatka in 1810, I had resolved to sail among the Kurils to the Strait of Hope (Nadezhda), between the islands Matua and Rasshua, to begin my nautical observations, the pleasure of His Imperial Majesty fully known to me by the order of the minister of the Marine, even if I did not have the Admiralty dispatch to know in what manner, and to what degree of minuteness I was to execute my duty. I however had made up my mind, and would not waste any more time. Before setting out I had also resolved to hold no intercourse with the Japanese, lest I be ordered to do so.

Due to the precedents of members of the Russian imperial navy, whose acts were essentially a declaration of war, it would have been very imprudent. Without the consent of the Tsar, two officers had acted on the excuse of retaliation for the failed diplomatic mission of Count Rezanov, who was the first Russian ambassador to Japan, and proceeded to attack Japanese settlements in Northern Yezo, known to us as Sakhalin. Although it was single individuals who had abused of Russia’s sea power, their acts would have major consequences on my life, as I realized when I saw Lieutenant Khvostov’s forged document, which had been apprehended by the Japanese from one of the island’s chiefs, the latter having been falsely declared a subject of Russia.

I, Victor Nikiforov, not only sailed to the dominions of Japan in my early thirties, but was taken captive by the Japanese, experiencing countless things I will never forget, despite how forgetful they say I be.


	2. Captive

**Kunashir. July 10, 1811.**

After crossing the Strait of Catherine, we cast anchor off the southern extremity of Kunashir, just south of Iturup. The inhabitants of the latter had informed me that their island, as well as those south of it, were Japanese, and we sighted a fortress on the inner coastline of the bay. Yielding caution, we waited for the opportune moment to issue signals to the Japanese guards at shore. Despite their evident distrust, after some days of negotiation we were able to obtain the supplies we needed. I decided, however, to not yet set sail, and went ashore bringing along with me some of my men. You may think I had gone mad, but it was my prerogative to set things straight with the Japanese once and for all after the incident with Count Rezanov. After all, things had gone well so far despite the canons they had fired at us.

Thus all the officers agreed that despite the hostility we had been shown, we would not retaliate without the command of our monarch. Despite my previous reservations, I now personally wished to communicate with the Japanese, since I considered it my duty as an officer in the service of the Emperor of Russia to assure them, if possible, that our government had taken no part in the attacks on their coasts by the Russian-American Company’s vessels, and that establishing friendly compacts and commercial relations between Russia and Japan had ever been a wish entertained by his Imperial Majesty. Thus setting aside any concerns of personal danger, I landed on the island with four sailors; the rest of the crew was ordered to keep the boat afloat and to pay close attention to me for any signals.

Once there we were met by an _oyagoda_ , a sort of district commander, who was accompanied by a group of Japanese and Kuriles, the former dressed in costly silk garments, regardless of rank, and armed. Receiving me with the utmost civility and politeness, he requested that I wait for the governor of the castle. Neither impatient nor afraid, I smiled amicably and began to speak to him through our Kurilian interpreter, Alexei Maximovitch, who despite his name spoke rather poor Russian, until the governor arrived.

“Why have the articles we have left in exchange for supplies been returned?”

At his question the oyagoda proceeded to explain that since the Russians were to leave prior to settling any negotiation with them, their articles would be returned. This refusal to take European goods did not surprise me, but I knew there had to be a way to get the Japanese to accept presents.

French brandy would certainly do the trick.

Completely armed, with two soldiers carrying respectively a long spear and a helmet adorned with a figure of the moon, the governor approached. I did my best to keep a straight face at the way he slowly walked towards me with his legs far apart, hands pressed close to his sides like a toy soldier. He had not even looked up from the ground until I saluted him after the European fashion, upon which he raised his left hand towards his forehead, and bowed his head and whole body towards the ground. Our conversation then commenced, and I eventually learned, after much mutual questioning that was followed by tea and French brandy, as well as _sagi_ and caviar after exchanging our names, that he was in fact not the commander-in-chief of the fortress, but the lieutenant-governor.

Feeling like I had wasted my time explaining the object of our visit and our sovereign's intentions to this “Kenjirō” man, I declined his invitation to go see the governor at the castle, lest some persons of distinction among them joined my other men, who continued to watch us from the vessel. Refusing and then asking us to wait, it was eventually settled to postpone the meeting, and as a mark of friendship, he gifted me with a white fan to use as a peace signal, promising a generous supply of fish for my crew to pick up later in the evening. Though there was no way I could enter the castle on any conference at that time, reached the evening a meeting was arranged for the next morning through our messengers.

**July 11th.**

Not feeling the least preoccupied, I landed on shore with Midshipman Giacometti, Pilot Feltsman, four seamen, and the Kurile Alexei at eight o’clock in the morning. This time I had the seamen accompany me unarmed, so only the three officers, counting myself, had swords; Mr. Feltsman had a pocket pistol, on the pretense of making signals in case there was fog.

Once close to the fortress, the same official that had come down to meet us yesterday arrived with two other men we had already seen. While walking on the shore, we began to converse. I asked about the coasts of Yezo, which were just visible in the distance from Kunashir, and the trade between the latter and the peninsula of Nippon. After he answered me reluctantly, we headed to the gate of the castle.

On entering, I was left astonished by the sheer number of men, mostly soldiers, gathered there, and realized that they must have been collected from the neighboring garrisons to fill the small place, as if to prepare for an imminent threat. Nearly twenty meters from the gate stood a tent of striped cotton cloth, which was surrounded by many Kurile men. We were led towards it and introduced inside, finally coming to face with the governor, who was seated opposite of the entrance. Wearing a dress of silk and a suit of armor, he rose to his feet while grasping a tasseled baton – a sign, I was sure, of his rank. He looked a lot like Kenjirō, the lieutenant-commander who rose with him, but older, and his helmet, carried by one of his armor-bearers, bore the image of the sun.

We saluted them in our manner, to which they bowed, and we were then invited to sit down on the bench placed in front of them. On behalf of the officers I politely refused, preferring to use the seating we had brought with us and leaving, in that way, the bench to our sailors.

Noticing four men dressed in black armor, each carrying two sabers and sitting cross-legged on each side of the tent, I began to introduce myself and those accompanying me to the governor. After the introductory civilities on both sides were concluded, they entertained us with some tea without sugar, in cups which, according to the Japanese fashion, were only half filled and served on small trays made of varnished wood. Bringing pipes and tobacco to those who requested it, the conference hence commenced.

They began by asking questions that we had already covered in our introductions, clearly comparing the statements of the latter to the answers we gave them now, which the lieutenant-governor was eagerly writing down. On the pretext of wanting to gather how much we would need were we to buy provisions, they asked the number of our crew, and I deemed it wise to make the number bigger than it actually was, counting even the ship’s dog, Makkachin. However, since Alexei could not understand or express this number, I was forced to make one hundred and two marks on a piece of paper, which the Japanese then counted.

While the conference went on, the Venetian, Midshipman Giacometti, who had been eyeing the entrance, informed me that naked sabers had been distributed to the soldiers outside the tent. I then asked him, with a smile, if he had not made a mistake, as the Japanese always carry swords, and may have unsheathed them for whatever reason. He nodded, not pushing further, until circumstances occurred that roused all our suspicions: the lieutenant-governor withdrew, as if to attend some duty, before returning and whispering to the governor, who immediately rose up to leave. We followed suit, and I repeated my question in regard to the price of provisions, if he intended to sell us any. At this he sat down again, prompting us to do the same, and then invited us to have dinner, in spite of the early hour.

Sensing treachery was upon us we accepted, waiting impatiently to see what would happen next before we reacted. But the kind behavior of the Japanese, and their continued assurances we had nothing to worry about, made us relax again. They offered us savoury dishes, whose ingredients we sometimes could not recognize, accompanied by _sagi_ , a weak liquor derived from rice.

Once we finished eating, the governor got up to leave again. I therefore declared we could no longer wait, and must immediately return on board. He therefore sat down again, saying he must first enquire the Governor of Yezo before agreeing to anything, and proposed that one of us stay at the castle as hostage until the commander under whom he operated responded. Cracks thus began to show in the polite facade of the Japanese, and I asked how long that would take, to which he replied a fortnight. Smiling wryly, I imagined it would take even longer when said governor then declared he could not do anything without consulting the general government first, not to mention how dishonorable it would be to leave an officer behind me as hostage.

Refusing, I rose up to leave, and changing his demeanour completely, the governor then spoke in a loud, impassioned voice, striking several times on his saber. I figured he was listing all the wrongs the Russians Count Rezanov, Lieutenant Khvostov, and so on had committed, and thus listened impassively to his long speech, of which Alexei, terrified, interpreted this only one sentence:

_If I let a single one of you out of the castle, my own bowels will be ripped up!_

On hearing that, we instantly made all the haste to get out of there.

The Japanese, instead of closing in on us, made a loud cry in signal, and began to throw oars and large pieces of wood at us, in attempt to knock us down. Resisting, we managed to reach the gate, whereupon they fired upon us, but without effect (though one of their balls whistled past Mr. Feltsman’s head, probably scaring off the last of his hair). We now found out that they had succeeded in detaining Mr. Giacometti, the sailor Plisetsky, and our Kurile Alexei, in the castle.

Grimacing, I ordered them to keep running towards the boat on which we all came to shore, because there would be no point in adding ourselves to the number of hostages. On reaching our landing place we however soon lost hope, seeing the tide had ebbed five fathoms, leaving the strand quite dry, and that the Japanese were advancing against us with newfound confidence, weapons drawn, till they surrounded us at the side of the boat so that we could not escape.

Casting a look at the boat, which had been our very last chance of refuge, my stomach then dropped at the knowledge that our fate was unavoidable.

I surrendered.

The Japanese seized me by the arms, and conducted me to the castle, followed by my unfortunate companions. On the way there a soldier struck my shoulder several times with a small iron bar, when the clear, firm voice of someone I could not see intervened so that he would stop.

“ _Yamete sa_ ” was therefore the first Japanese phrase I learned at the onset of my captivity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes! _Giacometti_ is an Italian last name that, apparently, has a high incidence in Veneto, so it made more sense to me to make him, instead of Swiss, Venetian, since Venice was ruling an area not far from the Swiss Confederation, not to mention where the naval prowess Russia sought was. As for Minami-kun, in canon he has an elder brother, who is the governor here.


End file.
